Why are My Pals Sad? How to Fix Depressed Pals

Like the game that inspired it, there are lots of Pal debuffs to manage. Depression is one of them. Pals who are sad are less efficient, and eventually may not work at all. But how do you fix it? Easy. Here, I’ll tell you how to fix depressed Pals in Palworld.

How to Cure Sad Pals and How to Identify Depressed Pals in Palworld

Depression occurs when a Pal’s Sanity meter gets too low and stays there for an extended period of time. The condition degrades a Pal’s stats and makes them less likely to work. Thankfully, fixing depression is simple in Palworld.

Curing Sad Pals: How Depression Works in Palworld

There aren’t a ton of factors that go into whether your Pals get depressed. Either they can’t relax on their breaks, or they aren’t getting food that increases their Sanity. If you set your Pals to Hard Working or Super Hard Working using the Monitoring Stand, they become depressed more often than others.

How Do You Fix Depressed Pals in Palworld?

If you’re not yet Level 12 and have a ton of depressed Pals, put them back in the Pal Box to chill out and heal up. Curing Depression in the Pal Box takes a bit longer than the method below and completely removes that Pal from work and battle, but it might be your only recourse.

Otherwise, administer High-Grade Medical Supplies to cure Pals of depression. It’s a simple injection that makes those sad thoughts disappear. However, you must build a Medieval Medicine Workbench to make High-Grade Medical Supplies. The Medieval Medicine Workbench is available at Level 12 for two Technology Points and requires x30 Wood, x6 Nails, and x10 Paldium Fragments.

After building the Medicine Workbench, craft a single unit of High-Grade Medical Supplies using x5 Ingots, x5 Horns, and x2 Bones. Crafting Ingots requires both a Kindling Pal and plenty of Ore. It also requires the Primitive Furnace to forge them. The furnace is a Level 10 unlock, so you should already have one set up.

How to Give Pals High-Grade Medical Supplies

To cure depressed Pals, you have to manually feed them. You can feed them High-Grade Medical Supplies, and any other food, by:

1. Approach them and activate the “Open Menu” prompt using either the Right Stick (on controller) or 4 key (on keyboard).
2. Select Feed.
3. Choose the High-Grade Medical Supplies.

Once you give your sad Pals their medicine, they’re cured of Depression.

How to Prevent Pals From Getting Sad and Depressed

To prevent your Pals from getting Depression in the first place, provide them with good food with Sanity benefits so they’re never hungry. They’ll also be more prone to depression if you haven’t placed any or enough Hot Springs for them to rest in. Make sure to build a few Hot Springs at each of your bases, preferably close to their work stations, so they don’t waste their breaks walking to rest.

That’s about all we can say about how to fix depression in Palworld. It’s relatively simple whether you do it with medicine or time, but it’s a necessary mechanic to juggle in this survival sim from Pocketpair. Check out our guides hub to learn more tips on the game, such as how to turn off Pal hunger and how to revive Pals instantly.